The former president is accused of conspiring to stage a coup to stay in power despite losing the 2022 presidential election to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro denies any wrongdoing, and has repeatedly said the trial is a politically motivated attack on spurious charges.

Prosecutor-general Paulo Gonet pointed to evidence that, after the October 2022 vote, Bolsonaro summoned top Cabinet and military officials to discuss issuing an emergency decree to halt the election result by suspending powers of the electoral court and investigating suspicions of voting fraud.

“It doesn’t take extraordinary intellectual effort to recognise that when the president of the republic and then the defence minister summon the military leadership to present a document formalising a coup

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